Thirst
by cutflowers
Summary: Lilly gets sick, Amber spreads rumors, and a bag of flour leads to something a lot more interesting than a couple dozen cupcakes. Lilly/OFC, Lilly/Miley.
1. You Reach

**Author's Note: Fairly standard story, just getting my feet wet. Title, chapter titles, and quoted lines all taken from Benjamin Alire Sáenz's poem **_**To The Desert**_**.**

**Disclaimer: No bags of flour were harmed during the writing of this fic. I don't know where those cookies came from, I swear. Oh, and I don't own Hannah Montana.**

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_You are sand, wind, sun, and burning sky,  
The hottest blue._

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**Friday**

Miley flew out the front door, not bothering to close it – her daddy would get it – one hand clutching her bookbag and the other holding half a piece of toast. She pounded down the driveway after her brother's car.

"Jackson!" she yelled, or tried to yell, but all that came out was an unintelligible shout and a couple bread crumbs, because the other half of the toast had been shoved in her mouth on the way to the door. She caught up with the car just as it reached the end of the driveway, awkwardly banging on the passenger door with her bookbag to get Jackson's attention.

He braked and looked over at her in surprise that turned to annoyance. Miley stuck her tongue out at him and went to open the car door, but he took his foot off the brake and let the car roll forward several inches, jerking the door handle out of her grasp. Miley lunged for it, and he did it again, and again, until she swallowed her toast and screamed at him. "Jackson!"

Jackson rolled his eyes but finally kept the car still long enough for her to get the door open and climb inside. "I thought you were walking with Lilly," he said.

Miley stuffed the rest of the toast in her mouth. "Overslept," she mumbled through it, sticking her bookbag on the floor at her feet and then fastening her seatbelt. She hoped Lilly hadn't waited for her long.

"Well, I don't have time to chauffer you," Jackson complained. "I'll be late."

Chewing hastily, Miley forced the dry toast down her throat. "It's _on the way_, Jackson," she told him, which was true. The junior high was right down the street from the high school. "Now quit whining and drive or we'll both be late."

"Fine, but I'm not stopping," he said. "You're just going to have to jump and roll."

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Lilly wasn't in first period. Miley kept expecting her to walk through the door, and she glanced at it in between using the mirror on her compact to unobtrusively check out Richard Bruce, who sat three seats behind her. His eyes were looking especially blue today.

The warning bell rang and Miley started to get a little worried. Where the heck was Lilly? She hadn't been too surprised that Lilly hadn't been at school yet when she got there, after all, it took longer to walk even if you had a head start. But she should have been here by now.

Miley put the compact away and pulled out her cell phone, firing off a quick text to Lilly. _where r u?_

She tapped her foot up and down impatiently until she got a response a few minutes later. _home sick. get assgn 4 me?_

Miley frowned. Poor Lilly. Her thumbs moved rapidly over the keypad to type out a reply. _:( srry ur sick. how bad?_

A moment later she had her answer. _been throwing up since last nite. u could tell what i had 4 dinner!!_

Ew, Miley thought, wrinkling her nose. _TMI!! ur so GROSS!!_

The final bell rang and Miley quickly read Lilly's last text as the students around her scrambled into their seats and Mr. Myers walked in the door. _:p luv u 2!_

Miley slipped the phone into her bookbag – Mr. Myers confiscated cells if he saw them – and shook her head. Her best friend was such a dork.

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First period crawled by without Lilly there to pass notes back and forth. Miley kept a watchful eye on the clock at the front of the classroom, because she'd swear that if she didn't it started to move backwards. They had just under ten minutes left when Mr. Myers cleared his throat and announced that they would be picking partners for their project. Miley sat up a little straighter. Project? What project? She really hadn't been paying attention.

Then Mr. Myers put a sack of flour on his desk and she slumped back down. Oh no, not this stupid thing. Oliver'd had to do it last semester.

"Each pair will be taking care of their baby for a week," Mr. Myers said. "After that, you'll have another week to write up your report. That means it's due the Friday after next, don't forget. I'll be handing out the requirements for that along with each baby. Any questions?" He was met with complete silence. "All right, I think I'm going to let the girls pick this time, so when I call your name, tell me who you'd like for your partner. Abigail Johnson."

Miley perked up again. Now this could be interesting. She looked over her shoulder at Richard, who grinned and winked at her. Miley smiled and turned back to face front, hoping Mr. Myers would call on her soon. This could be _very_ interesting.

Abby picked Patrick Shaw and Joanie took Alex Wilder. "Miley Stewart," Mr. Myers called.

Yes! Miley opened her mouth, all set to say Richard's name, when something stopped her. Lilly was absent. That meant she wouldn't get to pick, which meant she'd get stuck with...Miley's eyes darted around the classroom and settled on Dandruff Danny. Which meant Lilly would totally get stuck with Dandruff Danny, and Miley couldn't let that happen.

"Miley?" Mr. Myers prompted. "Who would you like to be your partner?"

Miley sighed and deflated a little. So much for this project being interesting. "Lilly Truscott," she said.

"Oooo," Amber said from her seat two rows away, making the rest of the class bust out laughing.

"Oh, grow up, Amber," Miley snapped, flushing a little. "There's more girls than boys in this class anyway, so some of us will have to work together."

"Whatever, lesbo," Amber shot back. "I always knew you two were gay for each other."

"That's enough," Mr. Myers said sternly as the rest of the class giggled again. "Amber, we don't tolerate derogatory terms like that at this school and if I hear any more you'll be making a trip to the principal's office." Miley smirked at Amber and Amber narrowed her eyes back, letting Miley know this wasn't over.

"Amanda Yuan?" Mr. Myers continued. Amanda immediately picked Richard and Miley sank down in her seat. Why did Lilly have to be absent today of all days?

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The only good thing to come out of first period was that Amber ended up paired with Dandruff Danny. Mr. Myers had picked her last – purposefully, Miley thought with satisfaction – and Danny was the only one left.

"Why didn't you pick me?" she was whining to Ashley after they had all gotten their bags of flour and were crowding out the classroom door.

"I thought you'd get mad if I picked you!" Ashley said. "I thought you didn't want to work with a girl!"

"There were only girls left!" Amber snapped at her.

"And Danny," Ashley said. "I was saving him for you!"

Miley tried to hide her snicker but was only marginally successful. Amber turned around and glared at her. "Have fun with your partner," Miley told her sweetly. "Do you know yet if the baby's inherited his skin condition? Maybe you can spend tonight shampooing both their heads with Selsun Blue."

Amber leaned in closer to her, fury sparking in her eyes. "Yeah, well, at least I'm not a _les-bi-an_." She turned the last word into a three syllable insult.

"Yeah, at least we're not _lesbians_," Ashley piped in, always loyal.

"You're working with a girl, too, Ashley," Miley pointed out, trying not to laugh.

"Only because she had to," Amber retorted. "Not because she wanted to suck face with her _girlfriend_." She didn't wait to hear Miley's comeback, turning on her heel and flouncing away. Ashley flipped her hair over her shoulder and followed her after giving Miley one last disdainful look.

Miley peered down at the smiling cartoon face that had been pasted onto her bag of flour. "See?" she told it. "Things could be worse. You could be going home with one of them."

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She didn't have any classes with Oliver until lunch. Miley plopped the flour bag down on the lunch table next to her tray. "Meet Miley Jr.," she said when Oliver looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Miley Jr.?" Oliver asked. "Are you sure it's not a boy? Because it kind of looks like a boy."

"It's not a boy," Miley said, scowling. She sat down and picked up her fork, poking at the rubbery mass on her tray that was supposed to be a chicken breast. Amber had spent the last three periods telling everyone she saw that Miley was gay. It had gone past mildly amusing halfway through second period and was now just deeply annoying.

"Um, I don't know if you've heard," Oliver said. "But – "

"Lilly and I are engaged in a torrid lesbian sex affair?" Miley asked.

Oliver nodded. "That about sums it up."

"Yeah, I heard," Miley said. "I picked Lilly for my partner for this stupid project because she's absent and I didn't want her to get stuck with Dandruff Danny, and Amber decided she wanted to use that to make my life miserable."

"Wow," Oliver said, eyes wide. "That really sucks. Are you okay?"

Miley shrugged and dropped her fork back on the tray, deciding that the orange she'd gotten was a safer bet than the chicken. "Whatever. It's Amber, you know? This is hardly the worst thing she's done to me. And, look – " She pointed over towards Amber and Ashley's lunch table, where Dandruff Danny was trying unsuccessfully to get Amber's attention, a sack of flour cradled in his arms.

"_Amber_ got stuck with Danny?" Oliver asked, laughing. "Oh, man, that is so _awesome_."

Miley laughed too. "I know, right?" She should probably be more upset about this whole thing, but, honestly, Amber spread rumors about people at least twice a week. Probably by Monday no one would ever remember this one.

"Hey, Stewart," Steve Jankowski, a big, hulking eighth grader – for the third year running – called from the next table over. "If I bring my video camera in next week, can I get some footage of you and Truscott making out?" Laughter, catcalls, and a few wolf whistles greeted his remark.

Miley groaned and put her head down on the table, banging her forehead against it repeatedly while Oliver watched in sympathy. She just had to get through today first.

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Bright afternoon sunlight streamed through the rapidly emptying hallway. Miley finished shoving her history and Spanish books into her bookbag and slammed her locker shut, moving onto Lilly's and muttering a list of all the classes Lilly had homework in under her breath. She spun the combination on the lock and then glared at the contents inside, hands on her hips. Hadn't Lilly taken _any_ of her books home last night? Now she was going to have to carry all of them. Lilly was going to owe her _big time_.

With relief, she spotted Oliver rushing down the hall towards her. "Hey, Oliver, want to come to Lilly's with me? I have to take over her homework." He could help her carry this stuff.

"Sorry, Miley, but my mom's picking me up today," he said without slowing as he went by. "And if I'm not out there in about two seconds she's going to start using her – " He shuddered. " – man voice."

"But...," Miley protested, but he was already gone. Dangflabbit, she thought. That boy was never around when you needed him. "You could have at least offered to give me a ride," she muttered.

Somehow, she managed to get most of Lilly's books in her bag too, but she still ended up having to carry three of them, plus Miley Jr. The walk to Lilly's house wasn't long, which was good, because her back was already screaming by the time she got there and the straps on her bookbag were digging painfully into her shoulders. Miley was surprised to see that Lilly's mom's car was in the driveway, and Heather opened the door before Miley could even knock.

"Oh, Miley, good," she said, trying to shrug into her suit jacket and hold her keys and briefcase at the same time. "I came home to sit with Lilly for a while, but the office just called and I have to go back. Do you think you could stay for a bit? I think she's going a little crazy having to stay in bed all day, you know how she hates being sick."

"Sure," Miley said easily. She had a couple hours before she had to start getting ready for tonight. "How is she?"

"She's doing better," Heather said. She brushed past Miley and hurried towards her car. "We think it was a twenty-four hour thing, or maybe she ate something that didn't agree with her."

"First time for everything," Miley tossed over her shoulder, and Heather laughed as she climbed into her car. Miley went inside and shut the door with her foot, then hauled herself and her increasingly heavy load up the stairs and down the hall to Lilly's room. The door was open and Miley paused in the doorway. "Are you contagious? Because Hannah has a concert tonight and I can't afford to get sick."

"Hey," Lilly said from the bed, looking up from the DS she was playing and brightening when she saw Miley. "It's okay, I don't think I'm contagious. But maybe don't get too close to me just in case."

"Yeah, I think I'll just stay on this side of the room," Miley decided. She walked over and dumped her armload of books and flour baby on Lilly's desk, then slid her bookbag off onto the floor with a sigh of relief. "Are you feeling any better? Your mom said you were."

"Yeah," Lilly said, tossing the DS to one side. "I drank some ginger ale an hour ago and I haven't barfed it up yet!"

Miley flopped down to sit in the desk chair and swiveled it around to face Lilly. "I'll alert Bree Yung Zhusdan Takahashi Samuels," she said dryly.

"God, I'm so glad you're here," Lilly said, ignoring Miley's teasing. "I have been so bored today, you don't even know. You have to tell me everything that happened at school today, okay? Everything."

"Maybe first you can tell me why I just had to drag _all _of your books here from school?" Miley asked.

"Really? All of them?" Lilly laughed nervously and looked around the room away from Miley. "You know, I really meant to bring my Algebra book home yesterday. And science. And – "

"All right already," Miley said, waving a lazy hand to get Lilly to shut up. "Just know that you me owe for this. Big time."

Lilly scrunched up her face. "For bringing me _homework?_" she demanded. "That hardly seems fair."

"Lilly...," Miley growled warningly.

"Okay, okay," Lilly said quickly. "Geez, someone's touchy today." She had that look on her face, the one that made it seem like you'd just tried to kick a puppy. Miley hated that look. It always made her feel like, well, like she'd just tried to kick a puppy.

"Sorry," Miley said, relieved when the look immediately left Lilly's face. "It was kind of a long day."

"Um, Miley?" Lilly said. "What the heck is that?" She pointed at the bag of flour, precariously balanced on top of Lilly's Spanish book. "You know I'm not in Home Ec, right?"

Miley turned the bag so that Lilly could see the side with the face on it. "We started that stupid baby project in Mr. Myers's class today," she explained.

"Oh," Lilly said, and then her face fell. "Oh, no. Please, please, please tell me I didn't get stuck with someone horrible because I was absent."

"You didn't get stuck with someone horrible," Miley said obediently.

Lilly covered her face with her hands and peeked out between her fingers. "It's okay. You can tell me the truth. I'm strong, I can take it. I mean, my body's been weakened by illness, but – "

"Lilly," Miley said.

" – I'm sure this won't be the thing that pushes me over the edge – "

"_Lilly._"

" – leading me to spiral downwards, getting sicker and sicker, until I waste away to nothing – "

"Lilly!"

"Okay, just tell me," Lilly said. "Quick, like ripping off a bandaid. Who'd I get stuck with?" She closed the gaps between her fingers and hunched her shoulders like she was tensing for a blow.

"Me," Miley said.

Lilly dropped her hands. "Seriously?"

"Yes," Miley said.

"You?" Lilly asked.

"Me," Miley confirmed.

"Oh, thank god," Lilly said, leaning back against her propped-up pillows. "I thought for sure you were going to say Dandruff Danny."

Miley laughed. "Come on, you know I wouldn't let that happen. Oh, but guess who _did_ get stuck with him?"

"Who?"

Miley paused a minute to build up the suspense. "Amber."

Lilly's jaw dropped. "Oh my god," she said. "Oh my god, and I _missed_ it? Aw, man! I hate being sick!"

"I know," Miley said. "But don't worry, the project lasts two weeks, so you'll have plenty of time to watch Amber suffer. Danny followed her around all day today, it was great."

"But I missed seeing her face when she first found out!" Lilly pouted. "And I'm going to have to miss the concert tonight. This totally sucks. You know what?" She threw back the blankets covering her and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "I'm not sick anymore, I just decided." She stood up, wobbling a little.

"Lilly, I'm not sure that's such a good – " All the color drained out of Lilly's face and her knees buckled; Miley shot out of the desk chair and across the room, grabbing Lilly before she could hit the floor. " – idea," she finished, frowning down at Lilly, who looked back at her sheepishly.

Miley straightened, lifting Lilly and sliding her back into bed. "Ugh, you're heavy," she complained, pulling the blankets over her friend and then sitting on the bed next to her. No point in staying across the room now.

Lilly slumped bonelessly against the pillows, her eyes shut. "'T's all muscle," she mumbled.

"Yeah, I know," Miley said. She'd seen Lilly in a swimsuit plenty enough times to know that. "That just means it's heavier. You might want to try waiting until you can eat something before you get up again, ya big dope." She gently brushed hair off of Lilly's forehead, then combed it a little with her fingers, straightening it around Lilly's face.

Lilly opened her eyes, her clear blue gaze focusing on Miley's. "You might be right."

"I usually am," Miley said smugly, causing Lilly to snort slightly in disbelief. "Here, you want some water?" She grabbed one of the cups off Lilly's nightstand and held it to her mouth, tilting it a bit so Lilly could take a sip. Lilly's eyes stayed fastened on her the whole time, and Miley suddenly felt uncomfortable, the rumors from school running through her head. "Um, you want to try some more ginger ale? Maybe if you keep it down you can graduate to Jello."

"Yeah," Lilly said, closing her eyes again. "But can you get me some of the cold stuff from the fridge?"

Miley rolled her eyes. "Your wish is my command," she said sarcastically, her discomfort vanishing. Those rumors were absurd. She needed to just forget about them. "I'll be right back."

"I want three ice cubes!" Lilly called after her as she made her way down the hall.

"Anything to help your recovery, Miss Picky!" Miley yelled back.

"Thank you!" Lilly said with fake sweetness.

Miley got the ginger ale, pleased to notice that there was already some cherry Jello congealing in the fridge. She'd make sure Lilly had a bowl before she left. She carried the drink upstairs and handed it to Lilly, who was looking better. Some of the color had come back into her face. "Three ice cubes, exactly as you requested," she said, retaking her seat on the bed.

Lilly sipped at the soda and Miley let her eyes wander around the bedroom. "I'm going to leave Miley Jr. here tonight if that's okay," she said, catching sight of the bag of flour. "I don't want to have to deal with it during the concert."

"Miley Jr.?" Lilly said. "No way. I think you meant Lilly Jr."

"Uh, no," Miley said. "I had to sit through class to get it, I had to haul it around all day, I get to name it. Miley Jr."

"Lilly," Lilly said stubbornly.

"_Miley._" They glared at each other for several seconds. "Oliver thinks it's a boy," Miley said finally.

Lilly blinked, then giggled. "How about just Junior?" she suggested, putting her glass on the nightstand next to the three others, all with varying levels of liquid in them.

"Deal," Miley said. "But it's still a girl."

"Are you sure you want to leave it here?" Lilly asked. "It might get sick germs on it."

"Well, I can't really cart it around with me on stage tonight," Miley pointed out.

"Uh, it's a bag of flour, Miley," Lilly said. "I think it'll be fine in your room unsupervised for a couple hours."

"Oh. Right," Miley said, chagrined, and Lilly laughed at her.

"So what else did I miss today?" Lilly asked. "Anything juicy?"

"Uhh, funny you should put it that way," Miley said, smiling nervously, stalling a little. For some reason, she didn't really want to tell Lilly about the rumors.

"What?" Lilly said eagerly. "What happened?" She sat up a little and reached behind herself to fluff up her pillows. Miley almost leaned forward to help her, then realized that to reach the pillows she'd have to put her arms around Lilly. Yesterday she wouldn't have hesitated to do it. Today she blushed and didn't move. "Come on, come on, tell me, tell me, tell me."

"It's really not that good, Lilly," Miley said, then hastily added, "Not that it's really _bad_, or anything..." If she was ever going to like a girl, it would be Lilly. Not that she ever would, Miley thought, pushing the idea away.

"What is it, then?" Lilly asked, looking at her curiously.

"Um, since I picked you to work on the project, Amber decided to tell the whole school that we're gay and having sex with each other." She blurted the explanation out in a rush, then clamped her mouth shut and cleared her throat to keep a nervous giggle from escaping her throat. "Funny, right?"

Lilly's face went pale. "She..._what?_"

"I know, crazy, right?" Miley said. "I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. I mean, tons of other girls in class are working together, but of course she has to pick on us." Lilly looked so shaken that Miley hurried to reassure her. "But don't worry, Lilly, you know how Amber's always spreading rumors, by Monday she'll have a new one and no one will even remember this. And, anyway, who cares what people think, right?"

"Yeah," Lilly said weakly, staring at the blankets covering her lap. "Plus, um...in my case, it's kind of true. Half true. Partially...partially true."

"What?" Miley croaked, dumbfounded.

"I think I kind of, um, like girls," Lilly said softly, not looking up.

"But...," Miley said stupidly. "But what about Matt Marshall? And Christopher Sinclair?"

"I still like boys, too," Lilly said quickly. "Just..."

"I – but – you," Miley stuttered. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I am telling you," Lilly said, glancing up and then back down. "Besides, I wasn't really sure before."

"But you're sure now?" Miley asked, feeling dizzy. She looked over at the bright block of sun that was Lilly's window.

"Yeah," Lilly said. "Umm, is that – is that okay?"

"What?" Miley tore her eyes away from the window and saw the worry on Lilly's face. "Of course it's okay. It's totally okay, Lilly, you have to know that. I'm just a little surprised, that's all."

"Okay." Lilly sighed and relaxed against her pillows. "Okay, good. You don't know how happy I am...That was pretty scary. I've never actually said it out loud before. Thanks for – " She smiled and reached out a hand, covering one of Miley's. A tiny frission of electricity ran up Miley's arm; she pulled it away without thinking.

The smile dropped from Lilly's face like Miley had slapped it off, replaced by a sharp stab of hurt. "Oh no," Miley said. "No, no, no, Lilly, I didn't mean it, not like that. Please, you have to believe me, I didn't mean – " She grabbed up Lilly's hand with both of hers, clutching it tightly. "I didn't mean that, Lilly, please."

"Yeah, okay," Lilly said, a small, pained smile struggling onto her face, but she'd gone back to staring at the blankets and wouldn't look at Miley.

"Are we okay?" Miley asked. She loosened her grip a bit and Lilly slid her hand from Miley's grasp.

"Sure," she said. "We're great."

Miley didn't believe her. She knew she should say something, but she didn't know what, and the longer they sat there in silence, the more awkward it got. "Okay," she said finally, "well, um...I should probably get going, you know, I have to get ready for tonight."

Lilly wriggled down on the bed and turned on her side away from Miley. "Have fun."

"I'll try, but it's gonna be kinda hard without Lola there," Miley said. Lilly didn't answer. Miley stood and fidgeted her way around Lilly's bed to the door. "Do you, um, need anything before I go?"

"No," Lilly said, turning over in the bed so that her back was still to Miley. "My mom should be home soon."

"Okay," Miley said. She stopped in the doorway. "Lilly?"

"What?"

Miley bit her lip. "Feel better, okay?"

"Yeah," Lilly said dully. "Thanks."

It took Miley until she got home to realize she'd left Junior and her bookbag full of books sitting in Lilly's room.

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Lights flashed all around her and the speakers blasted out the end of _The Other Side of Me_. Miley yelled to crowd that she'd be right back and ran off the stage, making sure to switch off her headset. She'd never forget the time she went to the bathroom in the middle of a show and left it on.

Her dad was waiting in the wings. He tossed her a water bottle, which she unscrewed and drank from gratefully. "You okay out there, bud?" Robby Ray asked. "You seem a little distracted."

"Distracted?" Miley took another long pull from the bottle. "I don't know what you're talking about, Daddy. What makes you say that?"

"You just sang half a verse of _Just Like You_ before you realized it was the wrong song," her dad said.

Sweet niblets. "Yeah, well, uh, no offense or anything, there, Daddy, but some of your lyrics do kinda sound the same."

"Uh huh," Robby Ray said skeptically. "You sure you're all right, darlin'?"

"Me?" Miley asked. "I'm fine. Great. One hundred percent totally awesome."

"O-kay," her dad drawled. "You've got one more song left, so just try to keep it together."

"Yeah, sure," Miley said, wondering exactly what Lilly had meant when she said she liked girls. Did she mean she liked _girls_, generally, or that she liked _a_ girl, specifically? "One more song. _If We Were A Movie_, coming right up." She screwed the cap back on the bottle and handed it to him, starting for the stage.

"Miley!" her dad called.

And if she liked _a_ girl, specifically, who was it? Miley tried to think if any of the girls at school deserved to have Lilly like them, but she couldn't come up with anyone. "What?"

"You're singing _I Got Nerve_."

Oh. "Right," Miley said. "Got it."

She was on the second verse before she remembered she hadn't turned her mic back on.

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**This story will have three more chapters. The next chapter will be up Sunday.**


	2. Then Bend Your Force

_**don't you wish that you could be a fly on the wall**_** (ROCK LOBSTER) / **_**a creepy little, sneaky little fly on the wall**_** (ROCK LOBSTER) I find that randomly yelling out rock lobster during this song increases my enjoyment of it by at least fifty percent. I highly recommend you try it. I love how Fly on the Wall is to Rock Lobster like See You Again is to I Wear My Sunglasses at Night. Except more so. God, I love her musical influences.**

**Thanks to the people who took the time to review, I really appreciate it.**

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_Above, below, by you, by you surrounded.  
I wake to you at dawn._ _Never break your  
Knot._

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**Monday**

Monday morning came too soon. Miley kind of wanted to oversleep again and ride with Jackson, but she was already awake when the alarm went off and as hard as she tried to drag her heels getting ready, she walked out the door to meet Lilly at seven-thirty on the dot.

They usually met up on a corner a few blocks from her house, halfway between hers and Lilly's. Miley could see her there now, waiting with one bookbag on her back and another at her feet, Junior balanced on one hip. Miley hadn't gone by to pick up her books. She hadn't even called.

She'd meant to, really, but somehow she'd never been able to pick up the phone. It was just that she couldn't stop thinking about what Lilly had said. The idea of Lilly being like that...it didn't _bother_ her, exactly, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that things were different now, that they'd changed in some fundamental way she couldn't put her finger on, and it made her uneasy.

Nothing's changed, Miley told herself when she saw Lilly, her blonde hair stirring in the slight breeze. Lilly was still the same person. Everything was still the same.

But her knotted stomach didn't believe that.

"I didn't know if you'd show up," Lilly said as Miley came up to her.

"Why wouldn't I show up?" Miley asked, pretending like that thought hadn't crossed her mind at least a hundred times since she'd gotten out of bed this morning.

Lilly shrugged. "You didn't need your books?"

Miley bent over and snagged the strap on her bookbag, settling it on her back. "Not really. I just had an English paper to write."

Lilly had to know that was a lie – Miley's bookbag was lighter by half than it had been on Friday, which meant Lilly must have taken her books out and knew which ones Miley had brought home – but she just nodded. "So how was your weekend?"

"Good." They fell into step heading towards school, not looking at each other. "What about you? Are you fully recovered?"

"Yeah, I was fine by Saturday afternoon," Lilly said neutrally. Miley couldn't tell if she was mad Miley hadn't called to find out how she was sooner. "Junior and I had a great time together, didn't we, Junior?" She hoisted up the bag of flour and held it in front of her face. "We colored and played blocks and had a tea party..."

Miley chuckled, trying to decide if Lilly was joking or if she'd really done all those things with a bag of flour. You could never tell with Lilly.

"And we went to Rico's with Oliver, and had a long talk about her future," Lilly continued. She tossed the bag into the air and caught it. "I told her she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up: bread, cookies, cupcakes. The possibilities are endless."

This time Miley laughed outright, and realized with relief that everything _was_ normal. That Lilly _was_ still the same person. What had she been worried about? What had she been afraid of?

She reached over and plucked Junior out of Lilly's hands, spoke to the cartoon face. "And when you grow up, you can love anyone you want to love. Cake flour, or whole wheat flour, or even another bag of all-purpose just like you. We'll love you no matter what."

Lilly stopped walking a second, then started again, quickly catching up to Miley. Miley snuck a glance at her. They smiled at each other, and just like that everything was forgiven.

Miley could feel Lilly tense up when the walked through the school doors. She tucked Junior under one arm and reached out with the other to take Lilly's hand. It happened again, that spark like static electricity, but this time Miley knew better than to pull away. Lilly gave her a grateful, nervous smile.

They hurried for their lockers, and Miley hoped like crazy that everyone had forgotten Friday's rumor and that they would be able to make it to first period without running into –

"Awww, look, Ashley, it's Seaview's very own _alternative_ family," Amber sneered from behind them.

Lilly tugged her hand out of Miley's and they turned to face the other duo. "Knock it off, Amber," Miley said. "Isn't it time for you to go torture someone else by now?"

A crowd started to gather around them, sensing a showdown. "I'm just providing an important service," Amber hissed. "Letting everyone know they'd better stay away from you two lesbian freaks and your gay germs."

Miley unconsciously took a step forward, half-shielding Lilly's body with her own. "There's nothing wrong with being gay!" she said angrily, staring Amber down.

Amber laughed. "Oh my god," she said in disbelief. "You aren't _actually_ gay, are you?" She paused and shook her head. "No, wait, you weren't all gay-rights on Friday. So what changed?"

Her eyes flicked over them, taking in Miley's protective stance. Miley shot an anxious glance back at Lilly, who looked pale and frozen.

"Oh my god," Amber said again. "The blonde one's gay!" She laughed, delighted with this new development. "I should have known. The skateboarding, the _terrible_ fashion sense, it all adds up."

"Leave. Her. _Alone_," Miley said dangerously, taking another step forward. She could feel everyone looking at them.

"Or what, you'll sic your kinfolk on me?" Amber said. "Please. I'm not afraid of you _or_ Little Miss Butch over there. Come on, Ashley, let's go. We've got a lot of people to talk to before the bell rings."

"Yeah," Ashley said, putting her hands on her hips. "A _lot_ of people."

"Ashley!" Amber snapped, and they stalked away. A loud murmur of voices rose to fill the hallway and the witnessing students started to move again, most of them giving Miley and Lilly a lot of room and unfriendly or revolted looks.

"Lilly," Miley started, turning around, not quite able to believe what had just happened.

Lilly looked at her, horrified, and then bolted across the hall into the girls bathroom. Miley ran after her. "Lilly!"

There were two other girls in the bathroom, sixth graders who were putting on makeup before class. Lilly had vanished into one of the stalls. Miley set Junior on the counter and then went over and rested her forehead against the cool metal of the door. "Lilly, it's okay," she said.

"It's not okay!" Lilly yelled.

Miley looked over her shoulder and saw the two girls looking at her in the mirror, eyes wide. "Can you guys give us a minute?" she asked, but it was really more of a command than a request. They both jumped a little and then hurried to scoop all their makeup into their purses and scurry out.

"Lilly, open the door," Miley said.

The stall door swung open and Lilly glared at her with watery eyes. "Why did you have to do that?" she demanded.

"Do what?" Miley asked, nonplussed, stumbling back a step at the anger in Lilly's voice.

"Act like you were all, I don't know, defending me or something," Lilly said. "Why couldn't you just have acted normal and not said anything? Then no one would know!"

"Lilly, I'm sorry, I just..." She hadn't wanted Lilly to think she had anything to be ashamed of. She hadn't wanted Lilly to think Miley was ashamed of her. "And you told me, so – "

"Yeah, I told _you_," Lilly spat. "My best friend. That didn't mean I was ready for the whole school to know!"

"I'm sorry!" Miley cried. Why was Lilly so angry at _her?_ This was Amber's fault, Miley had only been trying to help. "I wasn't thinking, I – "

"You never think!" Lilly yelled. "You just do things and they blow up in your face, and now it's blown up in mine! So just...just do me a favor and stop doing things around me for a while, okay? Because I have enough to deal with."

The warning bell rang and Lilly wiped at her eyes and then sped out the door. Miley just stared as she disappeared, unable to make even the slightest sound to stop her.

———————————————

"Where's Lilly?" Oliver asked at lunch.

Miley sat down, then slid her lunch tray several places away from her, which wasn't a problem since the other students in the cafeteria were avoiding their table. There was no way she could eat today. "I don't know."

Lilly hadn't looked at her once during first period, and in third period she moved to one of the empty seats up front so that she wasn't even sitting next to Miley. Probably she was skipping lunch so she wouldn't have to see Miley.

"Do you think she's okay?" Oliver said, worried.

"I guess you heard?" Miley asked.

"Uh, yeah," Oliver said in a no-duh voice. "_Everyone_ heard."

Of course they had. "But you already...I mean, you didn't just find out, did you?" Miley said, praying he hadn't. He'd probably blame her for it. That seemed to be the trend for the day.

He shook his head. "We went to the beach yesterday, she told me then."

"Good." Miley sighed and slumped against the table, cheek in her hand. Oliver hooked a finger over the edge of Miley's untouched tray and raised an eyebrow at her. She nodded and he pulled it towards him and started devouring the spaghetti that Miley knew from experience was overcooked. Boys, she thought. They could eat no matter what. "Lilly's mad at me."

"At you?" Oliver frowned. "Why would she be mad at you?"

"She thinks it's my fault everyone found out."

"I thought that was Amber's fault?" Oliver said.

"Me too!" Miley said. "But, it's like, Amber was saying stuff about her, or not really about her, but just about, you know, gay people in general, and I was trying to get her to stop, and then Amber figured it out, and I guess Lilly thinks if I'd just ignored her then nothing would have happened."

"That's crazy," Oliver said. "You can't ignore Amber, she'll just come after you harder."

"I don't know, Oliver, maybe Lilly's right." Miley hadn't been able to think straight, no pun intended, since Friday afternoon. Maybe she was screwing things up without even realizing it. She had a talent for that, Lilly had been right about that part, at least.

"No way," Oliver said. "She's just freaking out, okay? I mean, this is _huge_. It's gotta be hard on her."

"I know, and I want to be there for her," Miley said. "But she doesn't want anything to do with me." She told him about first period, and third.

"She's lashing out," Oliver said. "Lilly's scared and she's lashing out at you because she can't do it to the rest of the school and she knows you're a safe person to express her feelings with because you won't hold it against her later."

Miley shot him a who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-the-donut? look.

"What?" Oliver said. "After Lilly told me I looked up a bunch of stuff online. I didn't want to say the wrong thing." For a donut, Oliver could be a really good friend. "Look, I have class with her next period, I'll talk to her."

"Thanks, Oliver." She stood and took her now-empty tray from Oliver, glad she'd left Junior in her locker after first period and didn't have to juggle the two things. She didn't have the patience for that stupid assignment today. "I'm gonna run to the bathroom before class."

People stopped talking as she walked past them and leaned away from her. It made her sick to think they were doing the same thing to Lilly, or worse. "It's not catching, you know!" she snapped at them, and stomped off to take the tray back.

———————————————

She had gym sixth period. With Lilly. Their gym lockers were next to each other, but Lilly must have gotten there early and changed, because Miley didn't see her until she went out on the field with everyone else. They were just running laps today, which Miley hated, but at least it wasn't a team sport. She didn't think she could stand to see Lilly get picked last when she usually went first.

Sarah was talking to Lilly. Good, Miley thought, taking up a position on the other side of the group of students waiting for Coach McDemott to put in an appearance. She hadn't wanted to see Lilly standing by herself either, but she was afraid that if she went over Lilly would move away again.

Coach McDemott came out from the gym, blowing hard on her whistle, and the students slowly lumbered onto the track. Lilly quickly took the lead, and this time even Joanie let her have it unchallenged. Miley's eyes followed Lilly from her place at the back, dead last, straggling out behind the others. She loved watching Lilly do things like this. Running, skating, surfing, playing soccer, it didn't matter. Lilly always looked so beautiful doing it, so graceful. Next to her, Miley felt like she could barely walk without tripping over air.

Miley counted off the laps in her head. Lilly lapped her on the third one, when the rest of the class except Sarah had gotten so far ahead that their backs were hardly visible down the long straight portion of the track, and even Sarah was closer to them than to Miley. Miley sped up, trying to catch Lilly, and then she _did_ trip over air, and stumbled, and would have fallen but Lilly caught her.

"Thanks," Miley said, looking up into her eyes. The hair on her arms raised with that strange, electric feeling. Her mind skittered away from thinking about it.

"No problem," Lilly said. She helped Miley right herself and then started running again, slow enough that Miley could keep up. They ran together down to where the track curved. Lilly glanced over at her. "About this morning..."

"It's okay," Miley said. "Oliver told me about your need to express your feelings by lashing out."

"He told me that in this difficult time it's essential to have the support of my friends to provide an emotional harbor," Lilly said.

Miley shook her head. "That boy needs to play more video games." She almost tripped again and slowed down, panting. "Can we walk? Just for a minute."

"You're going to ruin my lap count," Lilly said, but she stopped running and let Miley set their pace.

"I've ruined it all year, what's one more day?" Miley asked. Lilly laughed a little and Miley took some time to get her breath back. "So, today, has it...I mean, how are you? How bad has it been?"

"It's sucked," Lilly said forcefully. "Everyone's..."

Coach McDemott's whistle blasted over what she was going to say. Miley smiled at Lilly apologetically as the rest of the students ran for the locker room. "We'll talk later? You could come over after school."

"Sure," Lilly said. They followed after the rest of their classmates, albeit at a much slower pace. "Miley?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

———————————————

The locker room was deserted by the time they walked into it. "Wow," Miley said. "What happened?" Coach McDemott always gave them fifteen minutes to change, and the room was usually teeming with girls changing and redoing hair and makeup right up until the bell rang.

"Probably no one wanted to get undressed in front of the lesbian," Lilly said bitterly. Her mouth was tight and Miley could tell she was trying not to cry.

"Lilly," Miley said, reaching out a hand in sympathy.

Lilly moved away from her towards their lockers. "Whatever. Let's just get changed and go to class."

They changed without talking, the rustling of clothes the only sound besides a thud when Miley accidentally dropped one of her tennis shoes. She pulled her shirt over her head and as soon as it cut off her vision she realized she'd been looking at Lilly out of the corner of her eye. Lilly, who was currently only half-dressed.

Miley blushed, and turned on the bench so that Lilly wouldn't be able to see it when she finished putting her shirt on. She hadn't been _looking_ looking at Lilly. She'd just been...checking to make sure Lilly looked healthy, and hadn't lost weight after being sick and everything. That was it.

A locker door clanged shut suddenly on the other side of the room. Miley and Lilly looked at each other in surprise. They'd thought they were alone. Hesitant footsteps squeaked across the linoleum and finally rounded the row of lockers to the aisle they were in.

It was Cara Morris, another eighth grader who was about Lilly's height, with straight black hair and dark green eyes. Besides gym, Miley had history with her, but they'd never really talked. She was on the soccer team, and Lilly had subbed in a few games when one of the other players got injured a few months ago, but Miley didn't think Lilly really knew her either.

"Um, hey," Cara said, staring at Lilly. She looked really nervous, almost like she was going to throw up.

"Hey," Miley said.

Cara's eyes flickered to her for a second before focusing back on Lilly. "Hey, Lilly."

"Hey," Lilly said warily.

"So, um...," Cara said. "I kind of heard the rumor that you're, um...you know. And I was just wondering...whether it's true or not."

"And what if it is?" Lilly demanded, her face hard. Miley slammed her locker shut and stood, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Cara. She just _dared_ Cara to say something. Go ahead, Miley thought. Give me a reason.

Cara swallowed convulsively and shot another quick glance at Miley. "So...I just wanted to know if maybe...you want to go get coffee or something sometime."

Miley felt her muscles go slack with surprise. Lilly blinked. Her expression shifted from confrontational to intrigued. "Are you asking me out?"

"Um, yeah?" Cara said uncertainly. "Unless you guys are..."

"No," Lilly said quickly, and then she laughed. "No, we're not...We're not."

"Oh," Cara said. "Good. So...do you want to?"

No way, Miley thought. It was too soon. Way, _way_ too soon. Lilly couldn't possibly feel comfortable enough to –

"Okay," Lilly said. A smile danced around her mouth. "You wanna go after school?"

Cara's face relaxed into a relieved grin. "Seriously? I mean, yeah, after school would be great. I'll, um...I'll meet you outside after."

"Okay." Lilly raised her hand to answer Cara's wave and the other girl was gone a second later.

"What are you doing?" Miley hissed at Lilly.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked, shoving her gym clothes in her locker and grabbing a brush to run through her hair.

"You know what I mean," Miley said. She wished she hadn't shut her locker already because she really wanted to slam something right now. Or hit something. Or kick. Kicking would work. "People just found out this morning, the whole school thinks it's disgusting, and now you're going to add a girlfriend to the mix?"

"We're just going for coffee, Miley," Lilly said. "We're not moving in together."

But you're supposed to be coming to _my_ house after school, Miley thought. Not going to get coffee with Cara Morris. What was so great about her anyway? "Like anyone here is going to make that distinction," Miley said. "And why do you even want to go out with her? You don't even know her!"

Lilly stood up and met her eyes calmly. "I know she's nice," she said. "I know she's cute. And I know she likes me enough to ask me out even though she knows how the rest of the school is going to react. I think that's worth getting coffee."

"I thought you were coming over to my house," Miley said.

"So I'll come over after I get coffee with Cara," Lilly shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal?" Miley sputtered. "The big deal is that the whole school – "

"Already thinks I'm a freak of nature!" Lilly half-yelled. "This isn't going to make it any worse. And if everyone's going to hate me over this anyway, I don't see why I shouldn't hang out with one of the few people who doesn't."

"This is a bad idea, Lilly," Miley insisted. "Really bad. Why are you – "

Lilly slammed her locker shut angrily. "Why are _you_ trying to ruin the only good thing that's happened today?" she demanded. "Why can't you just be happy for me?" The bell shrilled above their heads. "I have to go, Ms. Johnson gets really mad if people are late. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Fine," Miley muttered. She didn't make a move to leave with Lilly, sinking down to sit on the bench again instead. This was a horrible idea. Horrible, horrible, _hor-ri-ble_. Why couldn't Lilly see that?

And Cara Morris was _not_ cute.

———————————————

"Are you kidding?" Oliver said when Miley told him the whole story while they were walking home. They were down the sidewalk way ahead of the rest of the students leaving school, which had everything to do with the fact that Miley wanted to get a jump-start on her homework and nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Lilly had been in such a hurry to meet Cara after the final bell that she'd rushed off without even going to her locker or saying goodbye to Miley first. "Cara Morris is, like, a total babe. She's _hot_. Lilly totally scored getting to go out with her."

Miley punched him on the shoulder.

"Ow!" Oliver complained. "What was that for?"

"Nobody is _scoring _anything with anybody," Miley said harshly, thinking about the way Lilly had laughed when Cara asked if she and Miley were together. Like the idea was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. Miley didn't see what was so ridiculous about it. Not that she wanted to be with Lilly. But they were best friends, it was natural that people might think they'd want to, if they were both...Which Miley wasn't. But it wasn't like the idea was so far outside the realm of possibility that Lilly needed to _laugh_ about it. "And Cara Morris isn't hot."

"Uh, have you seen her?" Oliver asked. "Because – "

"Oliver!" Miley snapped. "Could we please focus on what's important? Like what Lilly going out with another girl is going to do to her? Amber and Ashley are going to make sure everyone treats her like trash. She'll get shoved around, tripped, beat up. She's going to get hurt!"

"I don't know," Oliver said doubtfully. "Nothing like that happened today. She said most people avoided her, and Amber and Ashley's crowd insulted her every chance they got, but no one actually _did_ anything. I don't see why they'd start just because Lilly and Cara go out on a date."

"It's not a date!" Miley yelled in exasperation. It wasn't. It was just coffee. No one had called it a date.

"Ri-i-i-ght," Oliver said. He stopped walking and squinted at her. "Are you...are you _jealous?_"

"No!" Miley scoffed. She pffted. She made several other emphatic noises to indicate how improbable that was and started walking faster, forcing Oliver to run a little to catch up. "I'm not _jealous_." She was just looking out for Lilly. Why couldn't anyone see that? "I just don't want Lilly to get hurt."

"And...that's why she's not on a date with Cara Morris right now?" Oliver asked.

"Exactly," Miley said. What was so hard to understand about that? "Can we talk about something else now?" She didn't want to think about Lilly and her not-a-date with Cara anymore.

"Sure," Oliver said, but they didn't. They didn't say another word the rest of the way, not even when they split up to go their separate ways. Miley brooded in silence all the way home, and then she ran upstairs, only grunting in response to her dad's question about her day, and threw herself on her bed.

She pulled a pillow over her face and screamed into it. How had everything changed so quickly? Lilly had only told her she liked girls on Friday, and now, three days later, here she was da— getting coffee with some girl. Some girl she barely even knew, who wasn't good enough for her. Lilly had said she still liked boys, why couldn't she date one of them instead? Or no one. There really wasn't any reason for Lilly to date anyone at all. They were only fourteen, what was the hurry?

Her dad knocked on the doorframe. "You okay, bud?"

Miley wondered what he'd say if she told him about Lilly. If he'd get that same look of disgust on his face as the kids at school. If he'd rant or yell or tell her that it was wrong and he wouldn't let her spend time with Lilly anymore. She didn't want to find out. "Fine, daddy," she said into the pillow.

"You sure?" he asked. "'Cause usually we talk face-to-face 'stead of face-to-pillow."

She lifted the pillow off her face. "I'm fine, dad. Just a little tired. I think I'll take a nap."

"Well, you know where to find me if you need to talk," he said.

"Yeah," she said, already smushing the pillow back on her face. She didn't really think she'd sleep, but her phone woke her two hours later, beeping to let her know she had a new text message. It was from Lilly, saying that she was done getting coffee with Cara and could come over now.

It had been two hours. What could Lilly possibly have had to talk about with Cara Morris for _two hours?_

The idea of having Lilly come over and then listening to her go on and on about Cara and coffee and whatever-the-heck they had talked about for two hours made Miley feel sick, so she texted back she had a headache and not to come. It wasn't a total lie. Thinking about this whole situation did kind of make her head hurt.

Lilly wrote back to say okay. Not even okay, really, just _k_. One letter. That was it. No 'feel better', no 'can I bring you anything?' Just _k_. Probably she'd used up everything else talking to Cara Morris.

Miley rolled over on her stomach and screamed into her pillow again.

———————————————

**Next chapter will be up Thursday, assuming looking after my niece doesn't kill me before then. (Big assumption.)**


	3. To Break, Blow, Burn

**Sorry for any errors, but I either post this now before the DVD ends or it doesn't go up at all. I am so glad Disney has already eaten my niece's soul, because I don't know what I would do without Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.**

**Thanks again to everyone who reviewed.**

———————————————

_You blow a breeze and brand  
Your breath into my mouth._

———————————————

**Tuesday**

The news about Lilly and Cara was all over school the next morning. Nobody seemed upset, though, or even disgusted like they had been yesterday. Everyone was...excited. Miley heard at least thirty people talking animatedly about their _date_ as she stalked the short distance from the door to her locker. She was alone because Lilly had texted her to say that Cara's older brother was driving them. She'd offered to have them stop and pick up Miley too, but Miley had felt like walking. Very fast.

Junior almost fell out when she opened her locker. Miley pushed the bag of flour back in and turned it so the cartoon face was towards the back of the locker. That thing was so cheerful it was irritating.

"Hey," Lilly said from behind her.

Miley spun around. "Where's Cara?" she asked bitterly, taking in the sight of Lilly alone, her face almost as cheerful as the one on their flour baby.

The cheerfulness dimmed a bit. "Uh, at her locker?" Lilly said, going to her own and opening it. "Why?"

"Given the way everyone's talking about you guys, I wouldn't have thought you'd want to be apart for more than two seconds," Miley sniped.

Lilly's lips thinned into a hard line. "And on Friday everyone was talking about you and me sleeping together," she said. "You believe that one, too?"

Miley didn't answer. That had been different. She'd known that wasn't true. This time Lilly had spent two hours getting coffee with Cara Morris and ridden to school with her, and suddenly everyone was acting like they were the new hot couple.

Lilly got a book out and shut her locker, turning to face Miley. "What is wrong with you?" she asked. "Is it your head?"

"What?" Miley said. There wasn't anything wrong with her. Or her head.

"You said you had a headache yesterday?" Lilly said, raising an eyebrow.

Oh, yeah. "No, it's – "

"Yo, Truscott," Mark Adams called, crossing the hall towards them. Mark was quarterback on the football team, and everyone thought he'd go straight to varsity when he went to high school next year. "Way to go, man. I tried to get Cara Morris to go out with me for like three months."

"I guess now you know why she wouldn't," Lilly said, smiling at him like it was normal to have the most popular guy in school come up to her in the hall and compliment her for going out with another girl. Like just yesterday Mark Adams hadn't been making rude comments about Lilly behind her back and acting like he'd get the bird flu if she came anywhere near him.

Mark laughed. "You're okay, Truscott. Up top." He held up a hand and Lilly slapped it with her own. "Dude, you should come to the game this Friday. Bring your girlfriend." He started to amble off down the hallway.

"Maybe," Lilly called after him, and he raised a hand to show he'd heard. The rest of the hall had fallen silent during their conversation, and now the low tide of voices rose again, sounding even more excited than before.

Miley stared at Lilly intently. "What?" Lilly asked.

"So she's your girlfriend now?" Miley said.

Lilly frowned and shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like we talked about it or anything. But I had a nice time yesterday, and we're gonna go see a movie on Friday. She's really funny, Miley, you're going to love her, I promise. Yesterday when we were walking to Starbucks, she – "

"I think my headache's coming back," Miley interrupted. It would if she had to listen to all the supposedly funny things Cara Morris had said yesterday. She couldn't believe Lilly went out for coffee one time and now she sort-of had a girlfriend. Didn't anyone else think things were going too fast? She almost wished everyone at school was still calling Lilly a freak so maybe she would slow down and think about this a little.

No. She didn't wish that. She didn't want Lilly to have to go through that. But...she wished she could go back to Friday morning and pick Richard Bruce for her partner. Or even Dandruff Danny. Then none of this would have happened. "I'm going to go put my head down on my desk until class starts."

"Miley!" Lilly said as Miley walked away. Miley picked up her pace and let the flow of students swallow her.

———————————————

Cara Morris sat with them at lunch. Lilly asked her to, but Miley claimed the seat next to Lilly before Cara could. She and Lilly always sat next to each other. Just because Lilly might possibly have a semi-girlfriend didn't mean that was going to change. Cara sat next to Oliver, across from Lilly. People kept coming up to talk to Lilly and Cara. To congratulate them. Miley couldn't understand why. It wasn't like they were getting married or anything.

"It's so weird how cool everyone is about this," Lilly said after the entire basketball team stopped by for high-fives and fist bumps, and a couple of the guys Lilly hung out with at the skatepark came to see if she was going to skate today. For some reason, they thought it was be 'totally awesome' if Cara came to watch. Miley had gone to watch Lilly skate tons of times, and no one had thought that was totally awesome, or come by at lunch to just see if she was going. "Especially after yesterday."

"Yeah," Cara laughed. "I guess one lesbian is gross, but two together are hot. It must be a guy thing." It was a guy thing. Or at least it seemed what had happened was that a couple guys, popular guys, guys like Mark Adams, had decided it was hot and not gross, and everyone else was following their lead. There were still a couple people making faces and comments, but now they were the minority.

"Oh, come on," Oliver said. "That's just simple math."

The three girls stared at him, and then Miley and Cara both reached over and hit him on his shoulders.

"Ow!" Oliver howled, rubbing at the injured areas. "What, you guys didn't cover that in your class?"

Miley repeatedly stabbed her fork into the so-called meatloaf on her tray while Lilly threatened Oliver with further bodily harm if he didn't stop acting like an idiot. Cara Morris wasn't allowed to hit Oliver. No one was allowed to hit Oliver but Miley and Lilly.

A foot bumped hers under the table. Miley looked up, all set to yell at Oliver for kicking her. Then Cara winked at her and mouthed, Sorry. A second later, Lilly's head snapped up and she smiled at Cara, a shy, secret smile. So Cara had been trying for Lilly and got Miley by accident. And right now they were...

Miley looked back down at her meatloaf. She wasn't hungry anymore. In fact, she thought she might throw up if she ate anything. "You know what?" she said. "I just remembered, I, um...I have to take a book back to the library before class starts." She scrambled get up and throw her bookbag on her back and pick up her tray. "I'll see you guys later."

Lilly was looking at her quizzically and Miley hurried to walk away before Lilly could say anything. Behind her, she heard Oliver saying, "But lunch isn't even half over yet."

———————————————

Miley was out of her seat as soon as the last bell rang. She couldn't decide if she was trying to get to her locker as fast as she could to make sure she didn't miss Lilly or to try and get out of school without seeing her. They'd run again in gym class and Miley hadn't been able to say anything to Lilly because she and Cara were suddenly the most popular girls in class. Everyone clustered around them, wanting the latest gossip, and the class had gone around the track in a single clump. Except for Miley, who had actually run faster than the blob, and managed a decent lap count for once. It was easier to keep running when there was something behind you that you wanted to get away from.

As quick as she was, Lilly beat her to the lockers. She flashed a hesitant smile at Miley and Miley forced half of one in response. She hid her face in her locker, but then she realized she didn't know what she was hiding from. This was stupid. Lilly was still her best friend, and it wasn't her fault that everyone at this school was gossip-hungry and crazy. They just needed to spend some Miley-Lilly time together and everything would be fine.

And that way maybe Miley would be able to convince Lilly that Cara really wasn't any good for her. She shut her locker and turned to Lilly. "Hey," she started.

"Hey," Lilly said carefully. "Did you get your book taken back?"

"Uh, yeah," Miley said, trying not to wince at the lie. "Just in time, too, it would have been overdue. Listen, do you, um...do you want to come over today? We could do homework or watch a movie or whatever. My dad's grilling out."

Lilly's face lit up. "Yeah," she said. Miley grinned, feeling better already. "Definitely. I really want to talk to you – "

"Hey, Lilly!" Cara called from down the hall. Miley's good mood disappeared in a heartbeat. Cara pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of them. "Hey, Miley."

"Cara, hi," Lilly said happily. Miley bit the inside of her cheek and made herself return Cara's greeting.

"I wanted to know if you want to come to soccer practice with me," Cara said. "Everyone on the team wants you to come, and Shauna's out today, so I bet Coach will even let you play." She took Lilly's hand. "Come on, it'll be fun."

Miley couldn't stop staring at the two of them. They were holding hands now? Were they going to start making out in the halls next? The tang of blood hit her tongue; she'd bitten her cheek again, harder this time.

"I'd like to," Lilly said. "But I was going to – "

"You should go," Miley said.

"What?" Lilly said. "But...are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure," Miley said. It was obvious Lilly would rather go with Cara. Who was Miley to stop her? No one. She was just the best friend. "We can do something some other time."

"Great," Cara said, and started pulling Lilly down the hall by her hand. "Let's go, I don't want to be late. And sorry, Miley, I promise I won't keep stealing her from you forever!" They disappeared around the corner.

Lilly's locker was still open. She had a picture taped to the inside of the door, one of her and Miley and Oliver on the beach last year. Back before Cara Morris had come along. Miley punched it.

The door swung back and clanked loudly against the next locker over. Everyone in the hall turned to stare at Miley. "What?" she demanded, slamming the locker shut. "That thing was looking at me funny."

They all gave her a wide berth as she stormed off down the hall.

———————————————

**Thursday**

Miley didn't see Lilly at all Wednesday. No, she saw Lilly-and-Cara, this new, two-headed creation. Cara walked Lilly from her locker to first period. Cara was waiting to walk her back to her locker after first period. Cara dropped Lilly off at the door to third period just as the bell was ringing and Lilly had to slide into her seat while Mr. Owens glared at her for almost being late. Cara actually _was_ late to history because she'd been talking in the hall with Lilly.

Cara did this. Cara did that. Even when she didn't have class with Lilly or Cara, Miley still heard about it. She even overheard _Amber_ agreeing with Mark Adams that they made a good couple, and it took everything Miley had not to deck the other girl. She didn't know why that made her even angrier than when Amber had been bashing Lilly on Monday, especially since she knew Amber didn't mean this, but it did.

By the time school let out, Miley couldn't take it anymore. She sat at her desk in English for twenty minutes after the bell rang, until she was sure that the Lilly part of Lilly-and-Cara would have given up waiting for her and gone off to do whatever it was she would rather be doing than hanging out with her best friend.

Thursday started off the same. Cara was already at their lockers with Lilly when Miley got there in the morning. Miley stifled a groan and focused on spinning the combination on her lock. She was so _sick_ of Cara Morris. And she missed Lilly.

Lilly-and-Cara said hi. Miley made a noise in response. She got her locker open and pulled out all the books she'd left last night. She didn't feel like coming back to her locker today, not when Lilly-and-Cara were going to be hanging around. She'd just carry all her books. It would be good for her. Help build muscle mass.

"Hey, Cara," Lilly said. "Do you think you could – "

Miley didn't wait around to hear what Lilly-and-Cara were going to do next. She shut her locker and went to first period early.

———————————————

Halfway through third period, Lilly dropped a note on Miley's desk. Miley hid it under her notebook so Mr. Owens wouldn't see it and make her read it out loud. She read it after class, in a stall in one of the second floor girl's bathrooms. After Cara had shown up to walk Lilly to her next class.

The note just said, _can we talk later?_

I don't know, Miley thought spitefully. Can you separate yourself from Cara Morris long enough to have a conversation?

She crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash.

———————————————

Lilly didn't sit with them at lunch. She sat with Cara and Cara's friends from the soccer team. "I don't even see why Lilly likes her," Miley said as that whole table burst into laughter at something Cara said. Again. Miley had been watching them all through lunch, and so far that had happened seven times. There was no way Cara Morris could be that funny. "She's kind of annoying, if you ask me."

"I don't care what you say," Oliver said through a mouthful of chicken nugget. "You are totally jealous."

Miley's eyes snapped to his. "I am not!" she protested vehemently.

"Yes, you are," Oliver said. "You're jealous because Lilly is spending so much time with Cara and you never get to see her." Oh, Miley thought. That kind of jealous. "Plus, you're cranky like you always are when you guys don't get time together."

"I do not get _cranky_," Miley grumbled. She wasn't four years old.

"Yes, you do." Oliver swallowed his chicken and ate a french fry. "So does she. I thought I was going to die last summer listening to Lilly whine when you went on vacation." He put air quotes around the last two words. The vacation had actually been a six-week Hannah tour, but Lilly and Oliver hadn't known she was Hannah back then. Otherwise she would have taken Lilly with her.

The warning bell rang and Oliver crammed the rest of his fries into his mouth. Across the room, Miley could see Lilly get up and head in their direction. She grabbed her tray and tried to take it back and escape, but Lilly caught her with a hand on her arm before she could get out of the cafeteria.

"Miley," Lilly said. Her hand was warm on Miley's arm, almost hot, and it felt like little tendrils of lightning were snaking from her fingers up Miley's skin. "I really need to talk to you."

"Lilly, we're gonna be late," Cara said over her shoulder.

Miley jerked her arm away and smiled tightly. "Guess we'll talk later," she said.

———————————————

Miley literally counted down the seconds until the end of the day, all 10,200 of them. She still had all her books, and there was no way she was going to her locker to drop off the ones she didn't need, so she ducked out one of the side doors and circled around to the front to meet Oliver.

Lilly found her first. She was waiting when Miley came around the corner. Miley groaned under her breath. It was really hard to avoid someone when they knew you as well as Lilly knew her. Not that she was avoiding Lilly, or anything. She just thought it would be easier for everyone if Lilly didn't have to bother coming up with excuses to go be with Cara Morris.

"Hey," Lilly said, and Miley said hey back. "So...do you think I could come over? Or you could come to my house or we could go to Rico's or something. I just...had some stuff I wanted to talk to you about."

Like how awesome your new girlfriend is? Miley thought. She almost said it, almost said no, she had too much homework, but Lilly looked so hopeful. And...they really hadn't spent any time together, just the two of them, in almost a week. Not since last Friday. Not since all of this had started.

Miley opened her mouth to say yes. Then she saw Cara come out of the door behind Lilly and start walking over to them. Cara waved when she saw Miley looking at her. Miley clenched her jaw shut. "Why don't you go talk to your girlfriend instead?" she hissed through her teeth. "Since I'm sure that's what you'd rather be doing anyway."

She whirled and walked away, almost running, ignoring Lilly when she called after her.

———————————————

"You plannin' on telling me what's bothering you anytime soon, Mile?" her dad asked. Miley paused with one foot on the first step upstairs. She'd sent the front door crashing shut behind her and headed straight for her room before her dad's question stopped her.

"Nothing's bothering me, Daddy," she told him.

"I'm not sure I believe that," he said, coming out from behind the counter in the kitchen so he could see her better. "Since you've been shut up in your room all week and I haven't seen hide nor hair of you. Haven't seen Lilly or Oliver around either, and we both know that ain't normal, so you wanna tell me what's going on?"

Maybe she should tell him. Maybe if she did, he'd forbid her from seeing Lilly and she'd have a good reason not to have to deal with Lilly-and-Cara anymore. "I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"I'm right here if you decide you do," he called as she went up the stairs.

Miley shut her door and dumped her bookbag on the floor. She got her guitar and sat on the end of her bed with her back to the door so she could look out the balcony doors. She'd been messing around on the guitar for about ten minutes, not really doing anything but strumming a random chord here and there, when the door opened.

"I said I don't want to talk about it," Miley said without looking over her shoulder.

"Too bad," Lilly said.

Miley put the guitar down on the bed. She didn't turn around. "What are you doing here?"

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" Lilly said. She shut the door. "That I like girls. I never should have told you."

"What?" Miley said. Where had Lilly gotten that idea? She stood and faced Lilly, crossing her arms self-consciously over her stomach. "No, Lilly, I don't care about that."

"Then how come you've barely been able to spend two seconds with me since I told you without bolting in the opposite direction?" Lilly said. "How come every time you see me with Cara you look like you're about to hurl up everything you've eaten in the past week?"

She didn't really look like that. Did she? "I don't know, Lilly! It's just..." She hugged her arms around herself and looked down at the floor. "Everything's just happening so fast."

"You think I don't know that?" Lilly said angrily. "You think I don't know things are going fast? I wasn't even ready for anyone to know about this, and now the whole school does, and somehow everyone's decided I have a girlfriend when I don't even know if I want one!" She drew in a sharp breath and then continued.

"Monday everyone hated me – I spent lunch in the bathroom because I was afraid to go into the cafeteria and I couldn't stop crying – and then the next day it was like I'm Jake Ryan and no one will leave me alone! People keep asking me questions like I'm some kind of expert on gayness and half the guys want me and Cara to make out in front of them when we haven't even kissed yet!"

Miley's head shot up at that. They hadn't kissed yet? She'd thought...

"I still haven't told my mom because I don't know how to, but I'm gonna have to figure it out soon before she hears it from someone else, and to top it all off, someone keeps putting pamphlets in my locker about how I'm going to hell!" Lilly finished. "Now don't you think with all of that happening there might be a few things I'd want to talk to my best friend about? That maybe I need you right now? And instead of being there for me, you've been avoiding me like the plague!"

"I – I haven't been avoiding you," Miley said weakly.

"Don't give me that," Lilly ground out. "You have a headache? You have to take a book back to the library? You haven't set foot in the library since they made you do orientation when you moved! And what about this afternoon? You yelled at me for no reason and then ran away!"

"I...I saw Cara coming and I thought...you guys really haven't kissed yet?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Lilly asked.

"Nothing," Miley said hastily. "Just I thought you had."

"Well, maybe if you'd said more than two words to me all week, you'd know we haven't," Lilly said, her voice hard.

And she was right. Miley knew she was. She'd been so wrapped up in her own feelings that she hadn't even thought about what Lilly was going through. "I'm sorry," she said.

"You should be," Lilly informed her. She hmphed and went to sit on the bed. "So if it isn't that I like girls, what's the real reason you've been avoiding me?"

Because you're always with Cara Morris, Miley thought. She dropped her eyes back to the floor and shifted uncomfortably. "I – I guess I just don't like Cara."

"Okay," Lilly said. Miley walked around to where she could see Lilly's face, standing halfway between the bed and the door. "But how do you know you don't like her? You haven't even spent ten minutes in the same room with her."

"I just know, okay?" Miley said. "Some people you just don't like, and Cara's one of those people."

"But you never had a problem with her before," Lilly said. "Maybe if you gave her a chance you'd like her."

"I don't think so," Miley said. If there was one thing she knew, it was that she would _never_ like Cara Morris.

"Can't you try?" Lilly asked. "For me?"

"Why do _you_ even like her?" Miley exploded. She saw Lilly's jaw drop a little at the anger in her voice. "What's so special about Cara? I mean, I would have thought if you were going to like anyone, it would be – " She cut herself off.

"Who?" Lilly said slowly. "It would be who?"

Miley resolutely studied the carpet under her feet. "Me," she admitted.

Lilly sighed. "Miley," she said. "It's a _good_ thing I don't like you. You're straight."

"I know," Miley said defensively.

"So?" Lilly said. "Don't you see how much it would totally suck for me to be in love with you when I'd have no chance?"

"What?" Miley said. Her stomach tripped over itself. "I didn't say anything about being in love." Did that mean Lilly was in love with Cara Morris? Miley felt like all the blood was draining out of her body and she might pass out. Lilly couldn't be in love with Cara Morris. She just couldn't. They hadn't even kissed yet.

Lilly blushed scarlet. "Right," she said. "I-I just meant, you know. That it would suck for me. If I _liked_ you. And for you, too, because it would probably make things all weird and awkward and...it would suck. It would _really, really_ suck, Miley. Don't tell me you want that for me."

"No," Miley said. "I don't." But she would like Lilly, if she liked girls. Which she didn't, but it only seemed fair that Lilly would return the favor, since she actually did. Was she not good enough? Was there something wrong with her that not even her best friend liked her? That Lilly liked, maybe even loved, Cara Morris over Miley when she'd only known Cara a week? "But...I mean...you never even liked me a _little?_ What does Cara have that I don't have?"

"Oh my god," Lilly said. "I can't believe you!" She jumped up from the bed and took a step towards Miley. Miley took a step back. She couldn't remember Lilly ever looking so furious, not even when she'd found out Miley was Hannah. "Can't you ever think about anyone but yourself? What do you think we've just been talking about this whole time? Did you even hear a word I said? I'm going through a really hard time and I need you and you're standing here asking me to boost your ego!"

Lilly kept advancing on her and Miley kept retreating, feeling sick with shame. Lilly was right. She was a horrible person and an awful friend. No wonder Lilly didn't like her. Her back hit the wall by the door.

"You want me to like you instead of Cara? You want to know what that would be like?" Lilly demanded. "Here, I'll show you." She grabbed Miley, fingers digging into Miley's shoulders, and before Miley knew what was happening Lilly's mouth was on hers.

Lilly's kiss was as angry as she was, her lips moving roughly and inexactly over Miley's. But it didn't matter. The electricity was back, everywhere, her whole body crawling with it. Miley's heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest, like someone had shocked her with a defibrillator by accident. And she was shocked, so shocked that for a long moment she couldn't think, or move, or do anything at all. Then –

She started to kiss back. She started to melt into it, to move through the space between them so she could mold her body against Lilly's. Her hands hovered above Lilly's waist –

And Lilly pulled away. Her face was flushed and she was breathing heavily. "There," she said. "Are you happy now? Maybe now everything can go back to normal."

Miley just gaped at her. Lilly shook her a little, thumping her back against the wall once, and then let go. She yanked the door open. "Call me later, if that's not too much trouble," she spat. "Let me know if I can have my best friend back."

Miley stood frozen until the sound of Lilly's footsteps down the hall faded into nothing, then brought a trembling hand up to touch lips that still tingled.

———————————————

**The final chapter should be up Monday.**


	4. And Make Me New

**Sorry about the length of this chapter but it would have been difficult to break up. Also, I put up all of **_**To The Desert**_** on my webpage. Go read it. It's not that long and it's gorgeous. Seriously.**

**As always, thanks for the reviews. Special shout-outs to Silence.is.the.Loudest.Scream and Vanessa Riverton for reviewing every chapter. You guys rock.**

———————————————

_You are thirst and thirst is all I know.  
Break me,  
I am bread. I will be the water for your thirst._

———————————————

**Friday**

Miley didn't sleep at all Thursday night. She couldn't, because every time she closed her eyes the kiss played out before them, so vivid and real it hurt. Only it didn't stop in her mind when it had before. In her mind it kept going, _she_ kept going, sliding her arms around Lilly's back, pulling her closer, kissing her and kissing her and –

It kept going until she wrenched her eyes open, gasping for air, her body humming with desire. She knew that was what it was now. Except it couldn't be. She couldn't like Lilly. She couldn't want..._that_. What would her daddy say? Jackson? Mamaw?

No. She couldn't be like that. She wasn't. And she could even make herself believe that.

Until the next time she closed her eyes.

———————————————

She didn't go to school. She told her dad she was sick. She didn't mark spots on her skin or stick a thermometer to a light bulb, just rolled over when he came to wake her and said she was sick.

"Is this about Lilly coming over yesterday?" Robby Ray asked. "Are you two in a fight?"

Miley said, "Please don't make me go."

He put a cool, dry hand on her forehead, and Miley wouldn't have been surprised if she really did have a fever. After last night, she was weak and sweaty, and kept swinging between hot flashes and chills.

"I guess missing one day won't hurt you," her dad said.

She laid on her side and stared blankly at the wall after he left, only blinking when she absolutely had to. When she couldn't take being alone with her thoughts anymore, she got up and took a shower – cold – and put on clean pajamas. She sat on the couch with Beary Bear to watch trashy daytime talk shows featuring people whose problems all seemed easier to fix than her own.

———————————————

Oliver texted her right when first period would have been ending: _whats going on?_

Miley wrote back: _sick_

Her phone stayed silent for so long she thought Oliver wasn't going to say anything else, but it beeped again after second period. _L will get ur work_

Miley knew she shouldn't say anything. She should let Lilly do it. But if she did, she would have to see Lilly. And if she saw Lilly she'd know for sure that she –

She couldn't see Lilly.

She wrote back that she'd get the work herself on Monday. Then she turned her phone off and resolved not to let her brain think about anything other than the deadbeat dad skipping out on child support on Judge Judy.

———————————————

Her dad hadn't ever said anything negative about gay people. But he hadn't said anything positive about them either. And once back in Nashville a boy had petitioned the school board to take another boy to prom and he'd gotten beat up pretty bad by some of the other kids at his school. Ended up in the hospital. It was on the news for at least a week. Her mom had said it was a shame, but her dad hadn't said a word.

She could remember some of Jackson's friends making gay jokes. Jackson always laughed.

Mamaw went to church three times a week.

———————————————

She already knew what the rest of her family would say.

———————————————

Stuff like this wasn't supposed to happen to her. She was supposed to be normal.

———————————————

There were about twenty minutes when she couldn't stop laughing. She laughed until tears streamed down her face and she could no longer tell if she was laughing or crying.

A lot of Hannah's lyrics were about how important it was to be yourself, just that, just to be who you were, no matter what. And here she couldn't even bring herself to admit that she might –

———————————————

She was _Hannah Montana_. Hannah Montana couldn't like another girl.

———————————————

Oliver showed up around four. Jackson wasn't home yet, her dad had gone to the store, and Oprah was just starting her interview with Johnny Depp.

"Wow," Oliver said. "You look terrible."

Miley drew the throw blanket tighter around her shoulders. "Thanks a lot, Oliver."

"What?" Oliver said. "You're sick, you're supposed to look terrible."

"I'm not sick," Miley said, annoyed that he was playing dumb.

"I know," he said. He sat down on the other end of the couch. "So Lilly was right?" Miley didn't answer. She didn't know what Lilly had said about her, but it couldn't be worse than what she was thinking about herself. She was hurting Lilly because she was a coward. Because she couldn't see Lilly, because she couldn't –

"I don't understand this, Miley," Oliver said. "You were so worried about her on Monday, and now...she's going through a lot of tough stuff right now, but you acting like this is tearing her up the worst. She spent all of lunch crying on my shoulder out behind the school."

Miley drew her knees up to her chest and turned away from Oliver. That made twice Lilly had cried at school this week, and both times were her fault. "What did she say?"

"Nothing," he said. "Just that you guys argued yesterday and that's why you weren't at school. And that she didn't think you were really okay with her liking girls."

"It's not that," Miley said.

"Then what?" Oliver said. "She needs her best friend to be there for her and instead you're skipping school to stay away. What happened?"

She kissed me, Miley thought. She kissed me, and now I don't know who I am anymore. "Nothing," she said.

"Yeah, well, that's not good enough," Oliver said.

"I just can't deal with seeing her right now."

"Oh, so now she's something you have to deal with?" he demanded. He shook his head and stormed to the door. "You know, I really thought you were better than this."

The door shook as it slammed shut behind him and Miley cringed. She had, too.

———————————————

**Saturday**

Not seeing Lilly hadn't helped. Miley still knew.

———————————————

Her whole world felt like it had cracked in half and tilted, like a slab of concrete caught in an earthquake. She was so used to running full-speed at the future, but now, suddenly, she couldn't see the future at all. She could only look back, back along the last week of her life at this new, terrifying angle, back at where everything had broken. She saw now that this was what she'd been afraid of. That it wasn't Lilly who had changed that Friday afternoon in her bedroom. It was Miley.

She saw that she had wanted Lilly, wanted all of her that she could get, since the second Lilly had opened the door to that possibility. Maybe even before. Maybe she had wanted this back and back and hadn't known, hadn't thought it because it was so unthinkable.

She liked a girl. She liked Lilly. But Lilly didn't like her back.

———————————————

That was probably for the best.

———————————————

Lilly called, once, late in the afternoon. Miley let it go to voicemail. The message said that she and Oliver and Cara were going to the beach if Miley wanted to meet them. Miley went out on the back porch and stared at the ocean as though she'd be able to see them.

They were probably having a good time. Cara probably surfed, so Lilly would get to spend a lot of time in the water instead of having to keep Miley company on the beach like she usually did. Cara Morris was better for Lilly than Miley was. A better match.

She told herself that over and over all weekend long, the way you kept prodding a sore tooth with your tongue to see if it still hurt.

———————————————

It did.

———————————————

She couldn't believe she'd ever been so selfish as to wish even a little of this on Lilly.

———————————————

**Monday**

Monday morning her daddy said she either had to go to the doctor or to school. Miley was tempted to pick the doctor, but that would only take a couple hours at best and land her back at school afterwards anyway, in addition to the hot water she'd be in with her dad.

She did make Jackson drive her. She couldn't walk with Lilly. What would she say?

Miley dawdled outside of school until the warning bell rang. She knew she couldn't put off seeing Lilly forever. But she'd take five more minutes.

It didn't work: Lilly was still at her locker. At least Cara wasn't there. Miley sidled up to her locker and opened it without looking at Lilly. She wished she had come in earlier when there were more students around to distract her. Everyone was rushing to class now and the halls were emptying and she was far too aware of Lilly standing only inches away from her. Had she always smelled that good?

"Feeling better?" Lilly asked.

No, Miley thought. Worse. "Yeah," she said quietly.

"Glad to hear it," Lilly snapped. And then, reproachful, "We missed you on Saturday." Miley's throat closed up with guilt. Lilly exhaled noisily when it became clear Miley wasn't going to answer. Lilly shut her locker and took a step down the hall.

"Lilly," Miley said. "I..."

Lilly turned around. "Yeah?" she asked hopefully.

Miley almost told her everything. She almost blurted it out right there in the middle of the hall at school, but she was too afraid. What if she wrecked their friendship even more than she already had? "I..." She grabbed Junior out of her locker. "I think we were supposed to turn these in on Friday. I took care of it all week, you turn it in."

Lilly crossed her arms over her chest, her face closed-off and hard. "You didn't take care of it, it sat in your locker all week. And if you hadn't been _sick_ on Friday we could have turned it in then."

"So?" Miley said. "I still kept it! And you could have gotten it out of my locker Friday. Just turn it in, okay?" This was officially the stupidest thing they'd ever argued over. Except they weren't arguing over this, really.

"Fine," Lilly huffed. "Whatever. I don't have time for this." She snatched the flour out of Miley's hands. Her arm brushed against Miley's as she did and Miley froze. She squeezed her eyes shut and had to bite her tongue to keep from moaning.

By the time she opened her eyes, Lilly was gone and the bell was ringing.

———————————————

She skipped first period. The school would call her dad once attendance had been tallied for the day and she would probably get grounded for a week, but...how was she supposed to go sit next to Lilly for fifty minutes after what had just happened?

She locked herself in a stall in the bathroom across from their lockers and put her head between her knees until so much blood pooled in it that it throbbed every time her heart beat. She came out of the stall and threw her bookbag on the counter. The thunk it made echoed in the empty room, underscoring how alone she was. She blinked back tears.

The door swung open a second later and Amber walked in, a bathroom pass dangling from her fingers. Fantastic, Miley thought. Exactly who she wanted to see.

Amber stopped dead and made a disbelieving noise in her throat. "Ms. Goody Two-Shoes is skipping?" she said. "Wait til Principal Fisher hears about this."

Miley just looked at her in the mirror and then twisted her hair into a knot at the base of her neck and bent over the sink to splash water on her face.

"Aren't you even going to try to stop me from telling?" Amber asked as Miley pulled paper towels out of the dispenser to dry her face. Miley shrugged. She didn't really care if she ended up in the principal's office, not today. "Oh my god, what is your problem? Does this have something to do with your dorky little gay friend? She's sitting in class right now looking worse than you."

Guilt overtook her again. "Look, Amber, I'm really not up for this today, all right?" Miley said. She had bigger things to worry about than whatever idiocy was going to come out of Amber's mouth. "Let's just pretend you insulted me, I insulted you, you insulted me _again_...We'll even say you won, okay? Just leave me alone."

Amber crossed the room and hopped up to sit on the counter. She studied Miley critically for a moment. Miley finished drying her face and did her best to ignore the other girl. "Just tell her."

Miley narrowed her eyes. "Tell who what?"

"Oh, please," Amber said, rolling hers. "Like it's not totally obvious that you're pathetically in love with her. You two have been making goo-goo eyes at each other since the day you met."

"What do you know about it?" Miley said icily.

"I know if someone loved me as much as Lilly loves you I wouldn't let anything stop me from being with them," Amber said. She sounded completely serious, and when Miley looked at her she couldn't see even a hint of teasing or malice. What she did see, lurking behind the mask of superiority and disdain Amber always wore, was jealousy. Amber was jealous. Of her and Lilly.

Miley remembered Amber's tearful confession to her on the set of Singing with the Stars and wondered who Amber really was, what she was like away from here. The bathroom, the whole school, seemed so small all of a sudden. It was just a building, Miley thought. Most of her life would go on outside of it.

"She's with Cara," Miley said, not really believing that she was trusting _Amber_ with this. But it was somehow easier to say to her, to someone whose judgment wouldn't matter outside of this place.

"What-_ever_," Amber scoffed. "Like you couldn't drop-kick Cara Morris to the curb in two seconds flat. I thought all you hillbillies knew how to fight dirty."

Miley chuckled. "Why are you being nice to me?" She fiddled with the tie on the zipper to her bookbag.

Amber tapped her perfectly-manicured nails on the counter. "We all have our moments of weakness. Let's just say I'm paying back someone who was nice to me in one of mine."

Miley's head jerked around to stare at her. Amber couldn't possibly know she was Hannah. Could she?

Amber slid off the counter and went back to the door.

"Don't you have to go to the bathroom?" Miley asked.

"No," Amber said. "I just came in to look at myself in the mirror." She turned from one side to the other, checking out her reflection, then smiled in satisfaction. "I don't know why I bother. Perfect as always." She put a hand on the door. "Oh, and if you ever tell anyone about this? I'll kill you."

"Don't worry," Miley said. "No one would believe me."

Amber laughed and pushed opened the door. "Yeah," she said. "I know the feeling."

———————————————

First period had fifteen minutes left in it. Miley went back to their lockers. She had brought duct tape, and she got it out and opened Lilly's locker. Two of the pamphlets Lilly had mentioned were there, right on top. Miley slipped the roll of tape over her wrist like a bracelet and looked at them.

They were slick, glossy, with warnings against homosexuality and quotes from Scripture and black-and-white line drawings. She'd seen them before. Her church in Tennessee had them on a table in the fellowship hall.

It was better for everyone that Lilly was with Cara.

Miley threw the pamphlets away in the bathroom. Then she used the duct tape to tape over all the slots on the inside of Lilly's locker door.

She went to stand outside her second period class early so she wouldn't have to see Cara walking Lilly down the hall.

———————————————

In third period, Lilly passed her a note. Miley risked looking at it when Mr. Owens turned to write something on the whiteboard.

_Thanks for the tape job_, it said.

Miley looked up, and they smiled at each other for the first time in a week. Miley's heart jumped. Lilly was so pretty when she smiled.

Under the cover of her desk she dug fingernails into the soft skin of her wrist. She had to stop thinking like that.

———————————————

Everything would be normal at lunch. Miley was determined. She would sit next to Lilly and talk to her and talk to Oliver and even talk to Cara Morris. Normally.

Because that was what Lilly wanted their relationship to be. Just a normal friendship. And Miley wanted that, too. Her head did, anyway, and if she faked it long enough she was sure the rest of her would fall in line.

Her resolve held while she went through the lunch line and found Oliver at their table. "You know Lilly's going to sit with me, right?" Oliver said meanly. "Are you sure you want to be associated with us? In public?"

"Please don't yell at me right now, Oliver," Miley said. "You can do it later, I promise. You can call me anything you want. Just not right now."

Oliver actually put down his fork to focus his full attention on her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You aren't really sick, are you?" He said it with such concern that Miley knew she must look terrible.

"No," she said. "I – "

Lilly came out of the lunch line. Cara was right behind her. Jealousy tore through Miley, so strong it stole her breath. She had thought it was bad seeing them together last week, but now that she knew what she was feeling it was so much worse.

She couldn't do this. She couldn't sit here and act like everything was normal when nothing was. Nothing was. "Oliver, I – I can't," she choked out. "I can't do this, I'm sorry." She stood up and grabbed her bookbag. "Tell her something for me. Make something up. Just tell her – "

"You have to take another book back to the library?" Oliver said.

Miley left her tray there and ran.

———————————————

Now she knew what it was like to spend all of lunch crying.

———————————————

She went late to gym, and god, she knew what Lilly must be thinking, but she couldn't trust herself in the locker room. Couldn't trust that she wouldn't betray their friendship by ogling Lilly like some dirty old pervert. They had changed in front of each other so many times that Miley had a pretty good idea of what Lilly looked like without clothes on, and now she wondered if that was normal or if she had been looking more than she should all along.

The class was divided into teams for field hockey when she got outside. Coach McDemott tossed her a blue armband and she was relieved to see Lilly and Cara were on the red team. Miley jogged over to blue team, who all groaned when they saw her coming. The team captain told her to just try and stay out of the way, which was fine with Miley. From now on, she would stay out of everyone's way.

They played for about twenty minutes with Miley hovering uselessly around the edges of the field. She didn't even know what the score was, too caught up trying not to think about Lilly, about kissing Lilly, about _Cara_ kissing Lilly. The effort absorbed so much of her attention that she didn't see Maria Bennett heading straight for her.

Maria's shoulder slammed into her chest and Miley went flying backwards, her hockey stick getting torn out of her hands. She landed hard on the ground and all the air left her lungs. She coughed weakly to get her breath back. There was a high-pitched ringing noise in her ears and she shook her head, trying to make it stop. Ow, she thought. No more head-shaking.

"Miley," she heard through the whine in her head. She pushed herself up on her elbows and saw half the class standing around her. Maria was crouching next to her head, looking extremely worried. "Are you all right?" Lilly was the one who had spoken. She leaned down and offered a hand to help Miley up.

"Don't!" Miley said, scrambling backwards in a quick crab-walk. She didn't think she'd be able to control herself if Lilly touched her. She'd either grab Lilly and kiss her right there in front of everyone or she'd break down crying again. "Don't touch me!"

Lilly looked like she'd been the one to get knocked down. She jerked upright like a puppet on a string. Her mouth opened and closed. She stared first at Miley, then numbly at her still-outstretched hand until Cara took her arm and gently moved it back to her side. No one else said anything, or moved.

Miley shut her eyes. Lilly probably hated her now. Maybe that was best. Maybe if Lilly hated her, Miley wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore.

"You okay, Stewart?" Coach McDemott asked, finally reaching them. "Come on, walk it off."

"I think I need to go to the nurse," Miley told her. She looked back when she got to the gym door. Cara had an arm around Lilly's shoulders, consoling her.

———————————————

In English they were supposed to be working in pairs, peer-reviewing the first draft of the paper they'd been assigned last Wednesday. Miley hadn't written one. She grabbed Oliver while everyone was pairing off and pulled him over to the desks in one of the back corners.

"Listen," she started.

"I don't want to hear it," Oliver interrupted. "Lilly told me what you did, and I don't want to hear anything you have to – "

"Lilly kissed me," Miley said. She kept her voice quiet. This wasn't something she wanted the rest of the class to know. But she knew Oliver heard her, because he stopped talking and stared at her, and stared, and stared some more.

"She kissed me," Miley repeated.

"I heard you the first time," Oliver said. "I just...but she..._why?_"

"We were arguing, and I was being a jerk, and then...she just kissed me. And when she did, I realized..." She took a deep breath. "That I like her." She felt light-headed saying it. "I like her a lot. As more than a friend. And that's why I've been acting like this."

Oliver shook his head, then sat still a minute, then cleared his throat. "You...you like Lilly?"

"I know it doesn't excuse what I did," Miley said quickly. "But I can't – I'm not like Lilly, okay? I can't handle this like she did. I can't just figure out something like this and then go on like everything's – I'm _sorry_, Oliver."

Oliver nodded. "Are you going to tell her?"

"No," Miley said immediately. "I can't tell her, and you can't either. You have to promise me."

"But she kissed you," Oliver said. "Maybe – "

"_No._" Miley stressed the word as much as she could. "She doesn't like me. She told me she didn't. She can't know, Oliver. Promise me."

"I promise," he said. "But, Miley...I'm sorry, but you can't keep doing stuff like this. You can't treat her that way. She's still your friend."

"Do you think she is?" Miley asked. "Still my friend?"

Oliver looked down at the paper on his desk. "You'll have to talk to her about that."

———————————————

The silence between them seemed magnitudes louder than the tumult of the post-final-bell hallway around them. Miley kept her face hidden behind her locker door. She was trying to hurry, but she was shaking too badly and kept dropping papers.

Lilly shut her locker and Miley swallowed. She wanted to apologize but she wasn't sure if she still had that right.

"I'm going to Rico's with Cara and Oliver," Lilly said. Her voice was flat and emotionless. "I want you to come."

Miley nodded. She kept her eyes fixed on spine of her Algebra book.

Lilly took a step away and then stopped. "Miley?" Miley looked at her. Lilly's face was as impassive as her voice. "If you don't show up, I'm not going to ask again."

———————————————

Miley tried to go to Rico's. She took her stuff home, and changed her shirt and brushed her hair, and did a better job redoing her makeup than she had after her crying jag at lunch.

Oliver called to ask if she was coming and she told him she was, that she'd be there in ten minutes. She went downstairs and let her dad know where she was going and she walked to Rico's. She'd never noticed before just how hard walking was, how much effort it took to put one foot in front of the other.

The other three were already there, sitting at one of the tables. Miley stood on the boardwalk and watched them. She kept seeing Lilly's face when Miley had said not to touch her, kept hearing Lilly's voice say she wasn't going to ask again. This was it. If she wanted to salvage her friendship with Lilly, she had to go over there.

Cara picked up Lilly's hand and started playing with her fingers. She said something and Lilly laughed. Miley pushed down a surge of jealousy. When was the last time Miley had made Lilly laugh?

Last week, she told herself. Just last week. That wasn't so long ago. And she would do it again. She would get over this crush, or whatever it was, and she would learn to like Cara Morris and whoever Lilly dated after her, and she would be happy for Lilly. She would be happy for her best friend.

She just had to go over there.

Cara leaned over and brushed her lips across Lilly's cheek. Lilly blushed and smiled, and Miley forgot about everything but trying to get home before she started to cry.

———————————————

"Whoa, hang on a minute there, Miles."

Miley slowed her headlong hurtle through the living room. "Not now, daddy, okay?"

He got up from the couch and circled around it to her. "No, it's not okay, not when you come in here lookin' like you're about two seconds away from cryin' enough to fill the Pacific. What happened? I thought you were just going to meet Oliver and Lilly."

She lost her battle with tears at the mention of Lilly's name.

"Hey, hey," Robby Ray said softly, pulling her against him. "It's all right, Miley. It's gonna be all right." He helped her over to the couch and let her cry against him, her tears soaking into the fabric of his shirt and making it chafe her face where it was pressed into his chest.

She got a hold of herself after a few minutes and sat up. He handed her a tissue from the box on the end table. "Time to let me in on what's been going on with you this past week," he said while she dabbed at her eyes and then wadded the mascara-stained tissue in her fist.

He wouldn't take no for an answer. Not after she'd cried all over him. And she didn't know how to lie to her dad, but she didn't know how to tell him something like this either. What would she do if he hated her?

"Come on, Miley," he coaxed. "What's got you so upset?"

"Daddy, did you ever...did you ever really want something that you know you can't have?"

He sat back against the couch. "Once or twice," he said. "There something you can't have that's got you crying like this?"

Miley shrugged. "I guess."

"This ain't about a pair of shoes, is it?" Robby Ray asked.

"No." Her attempt at a laugh turned into a cough. "No."

"Then..."

"Have you ever wanted to be with someone and you couldn't?" Miley said. She tore a little rip in the tissue to give her hands something to do.

"Ah," her dad acknowledged. "That is a tough one. Is this about that Jake Ryan boy again?"

"No," she said. "I'm over Jake." She'd been over Jake the day he left for Romania. Somehow she didn't think it would be so easy to get over Lilly.

"Well, then, have you told this boy how you feel?" he said.

"No, but it doesn't matter," Miley said. "H-he doesn't like me."

"And how do you know that?" Robby Ray asked.

"I just know."

"So you're just going to give up?" he said. "That's not like you. Seems like you almost did the same thing with Jake, and look how that turned out. Turned out he liked you, too."

Miley shook her head. "This is different."

"Different how?" her dad said. "I know there's no guarantees this boy will like you back, but, Miley, you know when you have a problem you have to do something about it. Tell him how you feel. See what he says. If you really like this boy, you need to at least make an effort."

Miley took a breath, held it. She scrunched the tissue into a tiny little ball. She couldn't keep something like this from him, not even if he hated her for it. "Even if the person I really like...is Lilly?"

A minute passed and he didn't say anything. Miley made herself look up from the tissue in her hands. His eyes were fixed on her face. "Huh," he said. "Didn't see that one comin'."

"I'm sorry, daddy," she blurted. "I didn't mean to, it just – "

"Hold on there, bud." He put a hand on her shoulder and she almost cried again with relief. He couldn't hate her too much if he was still willing to touch her. Then she remembered what she'd done to Lilly in gym and felt her face burn. "I think you're forgetting I know Lilly."

"What?" Miley said.

"So I know she's worth more effort than just about anything else in your life," he finished.

She gawked at him, her mouth hanging open, then lunged forward to hug him. "Thanks, Daddy."

"No problem, darlin'," Robby Ray said, wrapping an arm around her. "And I don't ever want you thinking you need to apologize to me for loving someone, you got that?"

"Yeah," she said. She hugged him tighter. He didn't hate her. She almost started crying again with relief. She could deal with the rest of her family disowning her, as long as her daddy didn't.

"Now I'll admit this is a bit trickier of a situation than I'd imagined," her dad allowed.

"Lilly has a girlfriend," Miley said. The wet spot from where she'd cried earlier was damp under her cheek.

Robby Ray pulled away. "Since when?" he asked, surprised.

"Since last Monday," she said, rubbing at her cheek.

"You see what happens when you don't talk to me for a week and a half?" he complained. "I miss out on all the important news."

"_Daddy_," she said.

"You sure she doesn't like you?" he said. "Y'all're so close..."

"She told me she doesn't," Miley said. "But it's more than that. I've been so messed up over this that I...I've been avoiding her, and I've been a horrible friend, and I think she hates me now."

"Aw, now, Mile, I'm sure it can't be that bad," he said.

Miley sniffled and blew her nose into the tissue. He didn't know what she'd done.

"I think you need to explain things to her," Robby Ray continued. "From what you've told me, it sounds like she might understand what you're going through."

Maybe he was right. Maybe if she told Lilly everything, it would be enough that Lilly could forgive her and they could still be friends. Maybe not like before, but...anything would be better than losing her completely. "Yeah," she said. "I'll try, daddy."

He pulled her into another hug. "That's all you can ever do, bud."

———————————————

Miley lay on her back in bed, worrying her lower lip between her teeth and trying to figure out something to text Lilly. She would tell her everything, tomorrow, if Lilly would give her a chance. But she couldn't think of anything to write that would make Lilly be willing to talk to her.

She didn't have to. The cause of all of this arrived in her doorway. "Why don't you just say it?" Lilly asked as Miley quickly moved to sit up. Lilly shut the door but left her hand on the doorknob.

"What?" Miley said. Did Lilly know? Had Oliver told her?

"You don't want to be my friend anymore. It makes you sick that I like girls."

"No, Lilly," Miley said. "It isn't that."

"It isn't?" Lilly sat next to her on the bed. She left space between them. On purpose, Miley knew. "Oliver said that, too, but I didn't believe him." She slowly leaned across the distance separating them. Miley held herself still, muscles taut and tense, bracing herself. She wouldn't move away. She wouldn't react.

"You're afraid to touch me," Lilly whispered. Her breath was warm against the side of Miley's face. Miley flinched. Lilly straightened. "You can't even look at me when I'm around Cara."

Miley opened her mouth to explain, to protest.

Lilly stood up. "I shouldn't have kissed you," she said. "I'm sorry for that."

That stopped Miley a moment. If Lilly hadn't kissed her, Miley wouldn't've had to deal with any of this. Everything would still be normal. _She_ would still be normal.

"It's okay," Lilly said. She sounded sad, and worse, resigned. She was back at the door, her hand on the knob, ready to leave. "I know you tried."

But she hadn't. "No," she said, "but I will, Lilly, I promise I'll try." She propelled herself off the bed and over to the door, putting a hand on it so Lilly couldn't open it, couldn't leave. "Just let me explain. It's not what you think, it – "

Lilly was looking at her, a question in her eyes. Miley didn't want to tell her, but she couldn't let Lilly walk away thinking what she did.

"I can't look at you with Cara because every time I do it kills me," Miley said. Her voice came out low and jumbled, urgent. "I'm afraid to touch you because I don't know what'll happen if I do, because ever since you kissed me – because of this, Lilly. This is why."

And she did what she had been wanting to do for days. She kissed Lilly. She knew it would be the last time, so she tried to put everything she felt into it, to say without words how sorry she was, and how much she loved her. Lilly's mouth was soft under hers, tender, but her lips didn't move and after a moment Miley broke the kiss.

Lilly's eyes were closed. They blinked open; otherwise she didn't move, and Miley couldn't see anything in her expression but a kind of empty shock. The room seemed too small suddenly, the air suffocating. "Lilly?" Miley said. "Lilly, say something." Lilly stayed frozen.

"I'm sorry," Miley said. "I know you don't want this, and I know it doesn't justify how awful I've been..." Lilly remained silent.

It wasn't enough. She'd been stupid to think it was. This wasn't reason enough to absolve her of what she'd done, of the pain she had caused Lilly. That she was still causing, because she didn't know what else to do, how else to apologize.

"I'm sorry," she forced out again. She couldn't breathe in here. She had to get out.

Lilly's hand was still on the doorknob. Miley had to lay hers on top to open the door, and she felt it, that shiver of pleasure and need that she felt every time they touched now, every time they kissed. That feeling that told her normal was gone.

She ran down the stairs, out the back door, and over the sand. She ran around sunbathers and surfboards stuck upright in the sand. She ran and ran and kept running until her legs gave out. Then she knelt in the sand, her chest heaving.

No, she thought, sucking in air. This wasn't trying. She was going to try. She would find some way to make things up to Lilly. She would beg, or plead, or even grovel. She wasn't above groveling. She would get her best friend back. That was what Lilly had wanted. That was what Lilly would get.

As soon as she could stand she went straight to Lilly's house.

———————————————

No one was there. Miley waited on the steps to the front porch for over an hour before Lilly showed up. She didn't seem surprised to see Miley, or upset, but she didn't seem happy either. She didn't seem anything, and she didn't say anything, just went past Miley and unlocked the front door, and Miley started to think that maybe this hadn't been a good idea.

But Lilly paused halfway through the door and said, "Come upstairs."

They went to Lilly's room. Miley sat on the floor with her back against the bed. Hope started to sputter in her when Lilly sat next to her, their sides barely brushing.

"I broke up with Cara," Lilly said.

Miley inhaled sharply. "You didn't have to do that," she said. "I meant what I said, Lilly, I'll try harder. I'll get used to it."

"I didn't break up with Cara because of that," Lilly said. "I broke up with her because of this." She put a hand on Miley's cheek, turned Miley's head towards her, and kissed her.

Miley leaned into it in spite of the surprise and confusion swirling through her. She gasped slightly when Lilly pulled away. "I thought you didn't like me."

The left half of Lilly's mouth curved up. "I lied," she said. "I thought you were already freaked out about me liking girls, and I didn't want to make it worse. You don't know how mad I was at myself for losing it and kissing you. I thought I'd ruined everything."

Miley let out an hollow laugh. "You did. I had no idea what was going on, except that I really didn't like Cara Morris, and then you kissed me and...I was so scared, Lilly. I never thought I could be like that. Like this. Never. I mean, I'm _Hannah_, Hannah can't like girls, and my family...and you know how much I want to stay normal, that's why I have Hannah in the first place, and – "

"You can't do this," Lilly said. She moved so that there was a gap between them.

"No," Miley said, and when Lilly went to move farther she wrapped a hand around Lilly's forearm. "No. I want you more." It was the scariest thing she'd ever said in her life. But it was true. And saying it was less scary than thinking about what might happen if she didn't.

Lilly subsided, her body relaxing. The space between them disappeared.

"But are you sure about Cara?" It didn't seem like this was possible. That Lilly liked her. That she wouldn't spend the rest of her life feeling everything in her shrivel up every time she saw Lilly with someone else. "I know you liked her."

"You've been my best friend for years," Lilly said. "I've only known Cara a week. Besides, we weren't really that serious."

Miley thought about how Lilly had said it would suck for her to be in love with Miley and not have a chance, and she wanted to ask if they were serious. But maybe that should wait until they'd been together more than five minutes. "I knew there was no way you couldn't like me," she said smugly instead.

"Oh, god," Lilly groaned. "There'll be no stopping your ego now."

"Did she ever kiss you?" Miley wasn't sure she wanted to know, but her jealousy had to.

"No," Lilly said.

Miley's smugness kicked up a notch. Miley Stewart: 3, Cara Morris: 0. Her hand was still on Lilly's arm. Miley moved her thumb back and forth over Lilly's skin. "Can _I_ kiss you?"

Lilly smiled. "You didn't ask before. Why start now?"

Miley leaned over and kissed her gently. Lilly's eyes were closed when Miley pulled away and Miley watched her until they opened. Lilly's cheeks flushed pink when she saw Miley looking at her. Miley grinned. Normal was gone, but she was starting to think this might be better.

"You'd think we would know better by now than to keep things from each other," Lilly said.

"Think we learned our lesson this time?" Miley asked.

"Probably not," Lilly said, and Miley chuckled.

"At least we finally got this right," Miley said. She drew her fingers down Lilly's arm and smiled when goosebumps followed them. "Which is good, because I think I was going slowly insane. And I missed you."

"Me too," Lilly said. Miley didn't stop her stroking and Lilly sighed happily.

"Plus, we still have to write that report together for Mr. Myers's class," Miley said. "And that would have been really uncomfortable."

Lilly laughed and bumped Miley's shoulder with her own. Miley's heart beat faster. She'd made Lilly laugh again. "I guess we really have Junior to thank for this," Lilly said.

"Junior and Amber," Miley said.

"Who ever thought we'd be thanking Amber for something?" Lilly said, still laughing. "I just hope we never have another week filled with as much drama as this one."

"Uh, yeah," Miley said, remembering something. "Lilly?"

"Yeah?"

"I think Amber might know I'm Hannah Montana."

Lilly's face went pale. "She..._what?_"

———————————————

**Okay, glad that's over with. I will probably put up a oneshot sometime next week, and then I'm going to start in on a cracked-out AU that no one will want to read. So, you know. That should be fun.**


End file.
